Mud & Magic

The sweet violets are blooming.

I know they’re weedy. I love them so. I wrote a short essay about the mud and magic of sweet violets in my new book. My plants are survivors, enduring neglect and renovation alike. Last fall, in an effort to honor their place in my heart, I transplanted a number of them into a new bed with my blueberries where they’ll enjoy more sun, better soil, and hopefully fewer slugs, who apparently love the tender blooms as much as I do.

So far so good. The other day I picked this tiny posey. Its fragrance filled my entire studio with a sweet, powdery scent. And then it didn’t. My essay in the book explores ionones, compounds in the blooms’ fragrance that temporarily desensitize sense receptors in the nose, that block our perception of the violet’s perfume. “One moment, you’ll catch a powdery aroma on the breeze—then nothing but mud and wet knees in the chilly garden.”

(You’ll find all of my daily posts and garden musings here on Instagram.)

Along with sweet violets, this is the season of stinging nettles, like those on the March calendar page shown above. Sweetness and pain. These are complicated times. Take good care of you and yours.

Paying attention with an open and generous heart is powerful. Thank you for your support!

So now a very different sort of effort begins as I introduce the book to readers. Color In and Out of the Garden is a record of my daily practice devoted to plants, color, and mindfulness. It’s about looking out, looking in, and connecting with the healing power of nature. As I wrote in the book’s introduction:

My watercolor studies log life and the landscape in every hue and season, and I hope to encourage you to do the same. Whether you decide to adopt a daily practice, or simply want to slow down and savor the season, this is an opportunity to quiet your thinking and to focus, a mindful meditation where color is our mantra, a willful distraction to direct our attention.

As an early gift to email subscribers, follow this link to download “Learning to See,” the page spread (with color studies) of the book’s introduction.

I’m so glad you’re here,

xo
Lorene

Color In and Out of the Garden arrives in bookstores on April 26. I’m so grateful for your preorders. Thank you to the team at Abrams.

Recent writing: “Chilly Sweet Peas” GROW in The Seattle Times
This year I got an early start to growing my beloved sweet peas.

Reading: “Grow, A family guide to plants and how to grow them” by Riz Reyes with illustrations by Sara Boccaccini Meadows. A delightful homage to the heroes of the plant kingdom.

Find this book, along with a selection of my favorite authors and titles in my a handmade garden Bookshop